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British Medical Association and the National Health Service Bill (leaflet)

British Medical Association and the National Health Service Bill (leaflet)

BRITISH MEDICAL ASSOCIATION
AND
THE NATIONAL HEALTH SERVICE BILL
The Council of the Association submits for the information of the profession the following report. It falls into two parts: part A, a statement of the principles adopted by the Negotiating Committee with explanatory paragraphs; part B. a report of the Council of the British Medical Association on the Bill to be submitted to a Special Representative Meeting to be held on May 1st and 2nd, 1946. All members of the profession, members and non-members of the Association alike, are urged to give this document the most careful study and to attend the meetings of the profession to be called in every area in the next few weeks.
This report is accompanied by a copy of the Government White Paper in which are described the provisions of the Bill.
A. THE PRINCIPLES OF THE PROFESSION
The Negotiating Committee, representative of the British Medical Association, the Royal Colleges, the Royal Scottish Medical Corporations, the Society of Medical Officers of Health, the Medical Women's Federation and the Society of Apothecaries, crystallized the views of the medical profession as a whole on the subject of a National Health Service in the following statement: —
"For a quarter of a century the medical profession has stressed the need for a complete health service.
The profession is willing and anxious to co-operate with the Government in evolving this service, for it believes that the knowledge and experience of the profession are indispensable contributions to its success.
It re-emphasizes that good housing, social, economic and environmental circumstances are the principal factors in the maintenance of health and the prevention of disease. It urges the expansion of medical research.
In the interests both of the public and of medicine, the profession regards the acceptance of the following principles as essential: —
I. The medical profession is, in the public interest, opposed to any form of service which leads directly or indirectly to the profession as a whole becoming full-time salaried servants of the State or local authorities.
II. The medical profession should remain free to exercise the art and science of medicine according to its traditions, standards and knowledge, the individual doctor retaining full responsibility for the care of the patient, freedom of judgment, action, speech and publication, without interference in his professional work.
III. The citizen should be free to choose or change his or her family doctor, to choose, in consultation with his family doctor, the hospital at which he should be treated, and free to decide whether he avails himself of the public service or obtains the medical service he needs independently.
IV. Doctors should, like other workers, be free to choose the form, place and type of work they prefer without governmental or other direction.
V. Every registered medical practitioner should be entitled as a right to participate in the public service.
VI. The hospital service should be planned over natural hospital areas centred on universities in order that these centres of education and research may influence the whole service.
VII. There should be adequate representation of the medical profession on all administrative bodies associated with the new service in order that doctors may make their contribution to the efficiency of the service."
Behind these principles are considerations of profound importance to the public and to medicine.
For the medical profession to be converted into a technical branch of central or local government would be disastrous both to medicine and to the public it serves. The doctor's primary loyalty and responsibility should be to his patient.
The interest of the public demands that he should be free — as civil servants and local government officers cannot be — to act, to speak and to write on professional matters according to the dictates of his conscience, unhampered by interference from above.
1

BRITISH MEDICAL ASSOCIATION
AND
THE NATIONAL HEALTH SERVICE BILL
The Council of the Association submits for the information of the profession the following report. It falls into two parts: part A, a statement of the principles adopted by the Negotiating Committee with explanatory paragraphs; part B. a report of the Council of the British Medical Association on the Bill to be submitted to a Special Representative Meeting to be held on May 1st and 2nd, 1946. All members of the profession, members and non-members of the Association alike, are urged to give this document the most careful study and to attend the meetings of the profession to be called in every area in the next few weeks.
This report is accompanied by a copy of the Government White Paper in which are described the provisions of the Bill.
A. THE PRINCIPLES OF THE PROFESSION
The Negotiating Committee, representative of the British Medical Association, the Royal Colleges, the Royal Scottish Medical Corporations, the Society of Medical Officers of Health, the Medical Women's Federation and the Society of Apothecaries, crystallized the views of the medical profession as a whole on the subject of a National Health Service in the following statement: —
"For a quarter of a century the medical profession has stressed the need for a complete health service.
The profession is willing and anxious to co-operate with the Government in evolving this service, for it believes that the knowledge and experience of the profession are indispensable contributions to its success.
It re-emphasizes that good housing, social, economic and environmental circumstances are the principal factors in the maintenance of health and the prevention of disease. It urges the expansion of medical research.
In the interests both of the public and of medicine, the profession regards the acceptance of the following principles as essential: —
I. The medical profession is, in the public interest, opposed to any form of service which leads directly or indirectly to the profession as a whole becoming full-time salaried servants of the State or local authorities.
II. The medical profession should remain free to exercise the art and science of medicine according to its traditions, standards and knowledge, the individual doctor retaining full responsibility for the care of the patient, freedom of judgment, action, speech and publication, without interference in his professional work.
III. The citizen should be free to choose or change his or her family doctor, to choose, in consultation with his family doctor, the hospital at which he should be treated, and free to decide whether he avails himself of the public service or obtains the medical service he needs independently.
IV. Doctors should, like other workers, be free to choose the form, place and type of work they prefer without governmental or other direction.
V. Every registered medical practitioner should be entitled as a right to participate in the public service.
VI. The hospital service should be planned over natural hospital areas centred on universities in order that these centres of education and research may influence the whole service.
VII. There should be adequate representation of the medical profession on all administrative bodies associated with the new service in order that doctors may make their contribution to the efficiency of the service."
Behind these principles are considerations of profound importance to the public and to medicine.
For the medical profession to be converted into a technical branch of central or local government would be disastrous both to medicine and to the public it serves. The doctor's primary loyalty and responsibility should be to his patient.
The interest of the public demands that he should be free — as civil servants and local government officers cannot be — to act, to speak and to write on professional matters according to the dictates of his conscience, unhampered by interference from above.
1